I. Overview of Jumia Platform
Jumia, as a giant platform of cross-border e-commerce in Africa, is known as the “Amazon of Africa” and its strength is remarkable. Jumia was officially established in 2012 as a project of Rocket Internet, a German startup, and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Jumia is a pure third-party e-commerce platform that focuses on providing markets and sales channels and does not sell self-operated goods.
Jumia’s largest market is Nigeria, accounting for 31% of its monthly traffic. In addition, Jumia’s website has been localized in 11 African countries, of which 6 African countries have more than 1 million monthly visits, namely Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Tunisia, Ghana and Algeria. Although its expansion in Africa has not always been smooth sailing, due to the instability of political and economic development in African countries, Jumia has closed its business in Cameroon and Tanzania.
The Jumia platform also introduced popular e-commerce features from other parts of the world, including “Black Friday” promotions, a free delivery program called “Jumia Prime”, corporate membership procurement qualifications, and overseas purchases. In addition, Jumia has launched several Internet projects in Africa, including travel, food delivery, and payment services. It also provides logistics services similar to Amazon FBA to sellers on the platform, so it is known as the “Amazon of Africa.”
Second, the advantages of the Jumia platform
Jumia has a considerable number of active customers, more than 6.8 million. Although this number is relatively small compared to the total population of nearly 1.4 billion on the African continent, it is expected to grow rapidly as Africa’s income level rises and Internet penetration increases. Africa’s population structure is showing a trend of younger age, so the consumption structure on Jumia is also younger accordingly. In 2020, due to the insufficient supply of offline categories, online consumption demand has gradually increased, and products such as mobile phones, 3C electronics, clothing, shoes, accessories, and small appliances have become hot-selling products. At the same time, Jumia also focuses on supporting the fields of clothing, 3C electronics, small commodities and home furnishing industries.
3. Logistics of the Jumia platform
Jumia provides sellers with three delivery modes:
1. Overseas warehouse mode (FBJ): International merchants prepare goods in advance to Jumia’s warehouse in the destination country by air or sea. After entering the warehouse, the FBJ SKU can be launched.
2. Direct mail mode (Drop Shipping): After receiving the order on the Jumia platform, international merchants will send the ordered goods to any Jumia warehouse within 3 working days according to the platform’s packaging requirements. Jumia will provide a dedicated line service to deliver the goods to the destination country. As of 2021, Jumia has established 6 distribution points in China, located in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong in South China, Xiamen in Fujian, and Hangzhou and Yiwu in Zhejiang.
3. Ordinary mail mode (Postal): Suitable for products with low customer unit price and customized delivery method when the order transaction amount is small. Jumia also has four distribution centers in China, located in Guangzhou and Dongguan in South China, and Hangzhou and Yiwu in Zhejiang.
Although the African market is a blue ocean for cross-border e-commerce, there are still some problems, such as incomplete home addresses and a consumer model that prefers cash on delivery. Jumia said it will continue to focus on Jumia Pay, Jumia FBJ and Jumia Postal to meet these challenges. As a leader in the African e-commerce market, Jumia plays an important role in shaping the future of African e-commerce.